Ulta Beauty

If you are looking for haircare or need to get ready for a special occasion, or actually expect good customer service think long and hard before booking an appointment at this location. It appears that the majority (NOT ALL) of the stylists treat all hair textures the same and are not skillful stylists After complaining about service I was informed I I could receive a full refund BUT I would be banned from returning bc I am never satisfied. I am an Ulta regular and appreciate the convenience of having the store in our area. My experience with the Ulta Salon and main store are completely different. I have been dissatisfied with the service I received in the Salon from multiple stylists, but have returned bc they were usually open to correcting their error and I have built a healthy rapport with several members of their staff. The service we received yesterday was the ultimate disappointment. The manager, Nicole lacks the judgment to run a salon and refused to take responsibility for the botched work her team member did or the mischarge she applied to the service. The asst. manager said the person I requested was not experienced with marcel curling irons so he referred me to Starlett. The asst. manager said he could do it, but his prices were higher bc he is a master stylist. I decided to go with Starlett. I immediately asked Starlett if she had experience with Black hair. She said «yes» bc her children are interracial. I received a consultation the day before, during which time there was not a price quote. That was the first mistake. The first time I heard anything about charges was when I came to pick up my daughter. I was charged 75 for a perm retouch, 20 for a curl using marcel curlers and 37 for a cut and style for a total of 132. Technically, a basic style should be included with the perm service and a cut should be a different charge than a trim. My daughter did not receive a haircut, but a trim and curl. Before she started I showed Starlett a pic of the length my daughter (a teen) was trying to grow her hair out to bc she’d decided she did not want to go drastically shorter. She moreso removed the dead ends than actually cut the hair into a different style. The perm did not take well so we did not have a reference for pricing other than the price menu. I noted that that the curls looked like they were done with a flat iron and I felt Starlett was not accustomed to using marcels. Curls lacked the characteristic stiffness achieved with a marcel. She had only made one curl by the time I shopped in the store and came back. She admitted that the curlers were not getting hot. That explains why the asst. manager was holding his hand over the hot plate. The curls began to fall en route to our home – not 10 minutes after we left. I was completely livid considering I specified the style needed to hold. They never informed me there was a potential issue with using the marcels and knew before I left the store. The asst. manager curled the hair bc Starlett had another client. In general I liked the «look» of the but expected the curls to be more precise. It s atypical to receive a retouch and walk out of a salon with getting the hair curled or flat iron at a minimum. We went over past prices and services in the system and the first time my daughter received a perm was not listed bc Amy offered a refund. The second mistake was when I did not demand a refund on-​site. Instead I opted to call the store manager to express a grievance and have the price adjusted. Leslie listened and offered a full refund. Yet, she said she had to talk to the salon manager and call me back, which did not make sense if she was truly authorized to issue a refund. She also suggested that I return the next day to speak to both Nicole and the general manager who would issue the refund as well. I told Leslie I received a refund in the past and did not want a full refund bc services had been rendered and my issue was with pricing and not getting a style that would last long (which was the while point in using marcel curlers.) Starlett’s body language changed, she spoke over me and got loud. Her conduct prompted me to call her out for the clear mistakes she’d made, such as the dullness of my daughter’s hair after drying. She claimed she could only keep the perm on briefly bc it was burning. I stated I knew the perm was on for a least 15 minutes because I sat in the shampoo room with my daughter for approx. that long. Nicole did not offer to correct the error in my presence. She was also on the defensive, saying Starlett does her hair all the time. Nicole is Black and is attempting to make this a racial issue to support her co-​worker. This is an issue of skill set, not race. This is solely about my getting the service I requested and being charged a fair price. That did not happen. Their dismissive attitude was offensive and made my girls and I uncomfortable. Bridgette the GM was eager to resolve the issue.

Employees not very helpful… they seem to not want to be asked for help. I had to walk by two employees chatting twice before one finally asked if I needed help. I said yes and explained my bb cream needs. She walked me over to the Clinique one and left. I kept browsing since I didn’t really like the shade options, and even though there were few other customers no one ever came to ask me if I needed any more help. Which I did. The ulta in fair lakes is way better.

Yesterday I went to ULTA for a haircut. I’m usually a cheap Haircuttery type of person but decided since it had been 9 months, I’d pay a little more.
The three pictures on the left and top were what Mimi did to my hair. My son witnessed as the girl cut 1 inch off my hair when I showed her a picture (of myself from 2 years ago) and said that I wanted the same hair cut — about 5 inches cut off. I cautiously said that I thought it was shorter in the picture and showed it to her again. Again, she cut off an inch. I again told her cautiously that I thought it was shorter. She was making rude comments under her breath and cut it again. When she handed me the mirror at the end I pointed out that it was very crooked in the back but she told me that was how it should be, and at that point I left.
Friends were shocked when I got home and showed them how bad and crooked everything was. So my first warning is to NEVER use Mimi at ULTA.
On a positive note, I called the manager, Nicole, this morning, and told her what happen. She told me to come back and someone else would fix it. I showed them my hair when I got back and they too were shocked.
The good news is that Starlett was amazing and she fixed it, no charge. She was professional and did a great job (that’s the bottom right corner picture) so that it was the length of the picture and was actually even.
So NEVER use Mimi, but I’d highly recommend Starlett.
(Will try to upload the picture)

So I came here during Christmas time to get my brother some cologne. (My brother is female to male transgender, and this was his very first OFFICIAL Christmas as «Casey» instead of «Lindsay»… So this was a pretty big deal to me.) I already knew he really wanted Ralph Lauren Polo cologne, he had told me to pick whatever one smelled the best to me. So I was looking around and the woman who is ALWAYS in the fragrance section (I cannot for the life of me remember her name, but she has a thick accent) comes up and starts asking me questions. I tell her politely thank you, but I know what I’m looking for, cologne for my little brother. She then starts pulling samples of cologne that cost like… $ 145… My brother’s 16. He doesn’t need $ 145 cologne. PLUS, he said he wanted Ralph Lauren… And I had already told her that. She keeps telling me «oh that’s nice but you should get THIS!!!» I REPEATEDLY told her no, but thank you. She would not stop. I finally just said «can I just shop in peace please?» And she got super offended and walked off.
Look, I know it’s your job, but learn to back off when I clearly already know what I want. Stop trying to up sell to me.
I’ve had a few encounters with her, but this was the time she was the MOST annoying. I enjoy going to the Dulles location now, it’s right by my work and I love the staff.

This is solely for the hair salon portion of the store. I went to get a trim this past Sunday. She curled my hair before I left the salon so I didn’t notice the botch job. I attached a pic of the after so you can see what I was dealing with. I would not recommend this salon to anyone. I gave it two stars instead of one because they saw me on short notice, and I appreciated that.

This review is specifically for the Salon: I absolutely LOVE the welcoming atmosphere there! I met my favorite stylist, Nicole, at Dulles Landing ULTA’s grand opening. She did such an amazing job on my hair and got me to come out of my introverted shell a bit. She came in to work on her day off because they were a bit short handed for the three days of the grand opening. I had never felt so good about myself. I told her about a previous experience where a hair dresser told me that I was disgusting because I had eczema, and she was appalled. She didn’t make rude remarks about my scalp condition, and she treated me like any other client that walked in the door. I came in today to the Manassas location and I was thrilled to see her again (and so was my hair… Because it was a HOT MESS)! She made me look extra awesome because my husband was in town to be able to see my hair transformation :) Thank you so much, Nicole, for making my ULTA hair salon experience yet another amazing one :) My husband said to say thank you to you as well because I can’t stop smiling :) I love my silver locks!

I do agree that the Manassas store has issues with customer service. Sometimes you walk in (usually during the day) and you can’t find anyone to help you. It seems to be better in the evenings or on weekends, but then you have to deal with the crowds on the weekends. Also, they have issues with items in stock. Personally, I feel that management is to blame here on both issues. As I live in Gainesville, VA, I was thrilled when Ultra opened in Manassas, so I no longer had to drive to Fair Lakes. Unfortunately, I still have to make that trip occasionally for out of stock items. For the most part, the employees have been pleasant, although I feel the staff is better at the Fair Lakes location. Maybe a change in management would be in order.

Is it possible to rate this store lower than one star. I spent 20 minutes ambling around the store before getting helped. The checkout staff was uninformed and seemed to make up the policy for coupon use on the spot without any factual evidence to back up their claims. Poor experience shopping here for my girls competition make up. Awful. terrible. Slow. I plan to email corporate just off the sheer principle.

Would be 1 star if they weren’t the only makeup specialized store in the Manassas area.
The employees here fawn over certain individuals while the rest of us are completely invisible. I guess I didn’t look like I had enough money to spend for them to bother wasting their time on me. Or maybe I wasn’t pretty enough. I don’t know what their reasoning is for choosing certain people to butter up.
Joke’s on them though. I brought plenty of cash with me since my intention was to make a huge purchase.
I was in looking for suggestions and makeup to add to my bridal arsenal, since I’m getting married in the spring.
No one so much as said hello to me, offered any sort of help or anything near the sort.
I ended up buying a couple items only because of the convenience of not having to go out to Fairfax when I live 5 miles from this location. Otherwise I’d of left with nothing.
It’s really a shame on Ulta’s part because I would have bought a full face had they just asked if I had any needs or questions. Guess I’ll be going to Sephora to build my bridal kit.
The cashier was nice. Only good point.

This review is for the salon and the services I received the other day. I will preface by saying the salon is well kept and for the 4 hours I was there, not a single stylist was just sitting around doing nothing. Not even when there weren’t any customers. It’s a very basic set up, but seems adequate for the customer flow they had.
On to my personal experience with a coloring of my hair. I walked in a little unsure of what exactly I wanted, I don’t get my hair colored. Ever. Not even cut/​trimmed/​permed but once a year. I have very little experience on what styles are out there or what they’re all called, I go based off of pictures and color combos I find online. Getting my hair done is a luxury I don’t afford myself very often, so when I go in to have it done I want it done right. The stylist and I chatted for a while, looking at pictures and consulting other stylists on color. I knew going in I wanted a pale pastel pink at the bottom of my hair, preferably an ombré effect. I wasn’t 100% on the colors to get me there. We decided on rose gold into pink. From my understanding, my whole head would be done in rose gold and lighten into pink. I didn’t question what the stylist was doing during the lightning process or color, I assumed she knew what she was doing. What a huge mistake that was. She lightened only the bottom color of my hair, from a medium brown to a bright gold. Strange, but again… I don’t know how the process works so I assumed what she was doing was for the end result. I emphasized again I wanted the pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. I don’t know how many times I asked to make sure that’s what was going in. Darn it, it was the one color I’ve wanted for forever. Today, it was happening!
Or not. The finished product was this bright gold brushed with a layer of pink brushed on. She left the top of my head, a solid brown, untouched for the most part. At first, from the styling she did, it looked ok (not great, but not horrific). Stylists were walking by saying how awesome it looked. So I thought, ok, give it time to sink in. It’s a big change, maybe I just need to give it time to grow on me. Again, I said to her, «I wanted a more solid pink at the ends». But she just told me I’d have to come in for touch ups for more pink. Wait. What? I didn’t sit for 4 hours to be told I’d have to pay to come back and get the color I asked for in the first place. Having been there for 4 hours, late to dinner, and knowing they were closing — I paid and left. After all, it didn’t look too horrible. There was a slight pink shade layered on over the gold. Until I washed my hair the next day. Now the pink is 90% gone on the left side and at about 70% on the right. It looks way off and like I had a bad blond dye job done. Golden blond is NOT at all what I wanted.
I placed a call to the store manager and they’ve offered to let me go in for a consultation to fix, or a refund. At first, I thought about giving them a chance to fix it. Now, the more I look at how dreadful it all looks — I’ve decided to get my money back and take my business elsewhere to get it corrected. Add all of this to the stress of preparing to go on vacation for 2 weeks. ARG!

I’m so unhappy with the haircut I received. I showed pictures and gave details about what I did not want and guess what I got… Just that. I’ve been growing my hair out for months and wanted to keep my length and Nicole (a master stylist) did whatever she wanted. I hate my hair, and cannot stand when a stylist does whatever they want.
Not only was my length an issue, she didn’t go back a detail my cut when it was dry. I have lines all throughout my hair cut. I HATE it. Don’t waste your time.

With the love that I have for makeup I dreaded walking into Ulta due to the lack of customer service. I just went in today & the cashier was the nicest person I’ve ever encountered at Ulta. Hopefully she can teach the others a thing or two. The store itself has always been clean & organized.

Very clean and a good size store… however I wandered around for 30 minutes without anyone ever acknowledging I was there. I finally just grabbed something, paid, and left. It turned out to not be what I was looking for and now I have to go back and return it. I was disappointed since my hometown is about 4 hours away and I always get amazing customer service at my local sephora. I’ll just go there from now on when I’m home, they are worth the wait.

Being this is the only Ulta in Manassas, is the reason I frequent this shop so much. Except for one lady, the customer service here could be much better. No one ever acknowledges you. if I have a question and I can’t find the woman who is actually pleasant, I won’t ask. I wish I knew her name ! She deserves credit. Also, they are out of A LOT of stuff, for example the NYX Contour Palette, always out, I’ve been looking for months and it is never in stock and the Laura Geller highlighter. I always asked and they always said, it was coming in the next shipment. Well, next shipment came and still nothing. It happened so frequently, I don’t even ask anymore. They have really great products and a nice size store, I just wish the customer service was better and they were more organized with keeping their products in stock.

I’ve been here a few times to get products and such and the store is always extremely clean & the employees are very friendly! I went in on Thursday for a facial w/​Lisa after my Mom recommending her & she was AMAZING just as my Mom said. I was very happy with the facial & she was super nice & friendly. The facial was amazing & my skin felt great (& still does)! It was also very clean & I loved the the products she used. I will definitely be going back very soon :)

SALON REVIEW:
LOVE this place! A very clean, well kept, easy-​going place to pamper yourself with a new hair style. If you go, ask for Justin! I went in looking for a new look (highlights, dramatic haircut, the whole 9-​yards), I was a bit nervous at first because I’ve had a few disastrous haircuts in the past (let’s face it we all have). Justin was great though! He was very friendly and easy to talk to, you can really tell he cares about his clientele. But the best part was his level of confidence in what he was doing with my hair, which was very reassuring to me AND he offered me coffee (which completely won me over.) My hair turned out great too!!! I would definitely recommend booking an appointment with him!
*Bonus* the shampoo bowls have padded neck rests!

SERVICES REVIEW: Did you know Ulta offers hair and makeup services for special occasions? Now you know! If you live near the Manassas location book Mimi for your hair and Lisa for your makeup. They did a fabulous job getting me ready for the Unilocal Fire & Ice Ball.

I agree with other reviews about their employees and service. There’s never an employee available to help in the store. I always have to walk all around the store before I can track someone down to help me. Finally when I get them to help me, they are usually clueless about the products and don’t even bother to check. Most of the times, they don’t have their own ULTA products in stock. Employees always say that they will probably have them in next shipment, but they never do. I would not recommend the store if you are looking for a good customer service.

I’ve never really liked this location, quite honestly. The employees don’t even fake like they enjoy their jobs, even the manager. She’s always short & lacks eye contact. Oddly enough, as many times as I’ve been in there before, she was semi-​friendly today. If u want service, find another location but if you’re just trying to get your product and get out, then this store will do.

This store is very clean & well organized. The staff is super friendly & helpful if you need assistance. I like that they sell the specialty brands (Bare Minerals, Benefit) among with Maybelline & Loreal. One stop shopping for beauty products! They also have hair products & tools, skin care, & other things there too.